Leslie Grover

Leslie T. Grover is an award-winning writer, scholar, and activist. Her first book,The Benefits of Eating White Folks, was published in 2022. Her short stories have appeared in Waxing and Waning Literary Journal, SWING Magazine,Testimony, andThe Takeback Anthology. Her second book,Rootbound, will be released later this year. Leslie currently lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She currently heads up a non-profit storytelling and social justice art organization, Assisi House.

Beyond her writing, Dr. Grover is the founder of Assisi House, Inc., a community research and storytelling organization amplifying the voices of marginalized populations. With expertise in community-based participatory research, she collaborates with communities to drive social change through policy analysis, program development, and narrative transformation.

She is certified in Narrative Medicine, Story Exchange Facilitation, and Community Storytelling, using these tools to explore issues of community reconciliation, historical trauma, health disparities, race, and social justice.

With a distinguished career in academia, Dr. Grover served as a tenured associate professor at Southern University, developing courses on public policy, racial justice, community participatory research, and narrative change. Her research on public health, racial disparities, and community polarization has been widely published, and she has presented at major conferences, including the Southern Political Science Association, the National Council on Black Studies, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Columbia University Medical School, Narrative Medicine Certification 2021 

Clemson University, Doctorate of Philosophy, Policy Studies Program 2006 

Mississippi State University, Masters in Public Policy/Administration 2000 

Dillard University, Bachelor of Art Mass Communication and Bachelor of Art Sociology/Social Welfare, Summa Cum Laude 1998 

The University of Michigan, School of Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Summer 1997 

Clark Atlanta University, Institute for International Public Policy, Summer 1996 

Presidential Management Internship Program (currently Presidential Management Fellowship Program) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), John C. Stennis Space Center, July 2002